Quantum (15 page)

It was a scene Olivia had witnessed only once before. Kellan had been about six then and his mother had just passed. He appeared to be just as distraught at the moment. Whatever could have happened? Rupert and Grayson–what was he doing here?–came walking down to Olivia, both appearing extremely agitated. “Rup, what’s happened?” Olivia choked out, her fears mounting.

“Ollie, Arizona has disappeared.”

“And so has Justin,” Grayson added.

Olivia took a step back, so she could properly see Rupert’s face. “Rup?” She tried to absorb Rupert’s hurried, and rather confused, recount of what had happened. Only Kellan seemed to have witnessed the act itself. She looked over at him, there was no point questioning him about it right now. She felt all the blood drain from her.

“Ollie?”

“Rup, did Kellan say how?”

“He’s not been able to say much, but he did manage to share that she turned into
mist
. We were all standing in the kitchen talking and then she was gone.”

“Sounds exactly like what happened with Simla in the portal,” Olivia confirmed. “Was Justin in the kitchen also?”

“No,” Grayson said. “He disappeared from my car on our way to Constance’s house. I stopped here as I was just minutes away.”

“Did he disappear into a mist as well?” Olivia asked.

“I don’t know, I was driving. I turned around to say something to him–can’t remember what now–and he was gone.”

Olivia put her face in her hands. She felt sick.

“Ollie?”

“Rup, I just need a couple of minutes to think this through.”

He nodded and put his arm around her shoulder as she leaned on his arm and tried to analyze her thoughts. There were two eyewitness accounts of the
disappearances
now, hers and Kellan’s. So, it was safe to assume that neither of them had experienced some kind of delusional episode. Olivia also concluded that the disappearances had nothing to do with the portal. After all, Arizona had disappeared from their kitchen. But was it correct to conclude that this had nothing to do with Wanderers? Arizona did not have any
Wanderer
connections. Could Wanderers have taken them? Why?

As Olivia opened her eyes she immediately caught the watchful gaze of Amadea. “Amadea! What are you doing here?
 
Oh, I didn’t mean that to come out so abruptly. I wasn’t expecting you.”

“Hello, Olivia. I came over when I heard about Simla. Constance contacted me.”

“Why would she contact you? No offense, but how does she expect you to help in any way? With Simla?”

“I expect Constance told you about the Sigma-Ws?”

Olivia could feel herself tensing up. Not back to this again. Not only was she expected to believe that Wanderers–beings who could travel through time and dimensions–existed, but now they had embellished this with yet another phenomenon–
Sigma-W
. “Yes, Constance mentioned them,” Olivia conceded. “She told me that they can wanderer geographically and that they are the
ruling faction
. Constance told me that there’s also a subversive group that has been tracking Simla, and that this–Simla’s disappearance–may be their doing. To be honest, I don’t give two hoots about Simla or the Sigma-Ws right now. Arizona is my
only
concern. Please do excuse me if that sounds insensitive.”

Amadea nodded. “Of course, Olivia. I understand. However, all this might be connected.”

“How?”

“I think it would be best for Rupert to explain this to you. Rupert you have my permission,” Amadea said, looking over at her son.

~

They had secluded themselves in the privacy of their bedroom, leaving the others downstairs. The last thing Olivia needed at the moment was a long heart-to-heart, even with Rupert. They had pressing issues to deal with–they had to find Arizona,
now!
“Hon, can we
talk
later? I’m sure whatever it is, it can wait. I think we should contact that FBI agent–I can’t remember her name, but I have her card in my wallet–and have her help us.”

“And what are we going to tell her? That Arizona
vaporized
into thin air?” Rupert shrugged.

Olivia stopped short, hearing that description aloud–vaporized. That sounded so
out there
, to say the least. How were they going to be able to convince the authorities to help them find Arizona with
that
description? They had to do better. “Rupert, we need to be able to pass on relevant information to the FBI in a more coherent fashion. They’re not going to buy
that,
even I wouldn’t if I hadn’t seen it firsthand when Simla disappeared. And I’m still questioning what I saw. Did I really see that or was it some kind of illusion?

“Yes! It could have been an illusion of some kind! Couldn’t it? I think we can reasonably suggest that to the FBI. I mean, what I saw isn’t necessarily what happened. I’m sure the FBI has experts in this kind of thing who may be able to help.” She looked at Rupert expectantly, while she scrambled for the card. “Here it is,” she declared triumphantly. “Agent Claire Adams. Shall I call or do you want to since you were here when it happened? Shall we tell her about Simla and Justin as well? I think we have to.”

“Ollie, hold on. You really think this could be some kind of illusion? I hadn’t even considered that. Who could be behind such an elaborate undertaking?”

“Raj?”

“I doubt he has the technical abilities or the funds to orchestrate something like this. He just got hold of the prints today, so he can’t have a great deal of money. And, besides, why would he do this? Abducting his own daughter? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Well, do you have any better ideas? If you don’t, I’d like to go ahead and make this call to Agent Adams. She may come up with some other ideas. We need all the help we can get.”

“Olivia, hon, please give me a moment,” Rupert pleaded, taking her hands and sitting her down beside him on their king-size, whitewashed wooden bed. He gently turned her face toward him and gazed into her eyes, securing loose strands of hair behind her ear. “I do have to tell you something, and I need to talk to you about it now, because it may pertain to Arizona and the other kids who have gone missing. And if there’s even a small chance, well, you have to know. And Mother finally gave me permission to share.”

Olivia felt a slight twinge of irritation at the thought that he needed his mother’s permission to tell her anything. “Well. If it’s not wasting important time searching for Arizona, please do tell.”

“Ollie, why are you annoyed?”

“Oh, just ignore me. I’m being childish. I can’t comprehend why you would need your mother’s permission to tell me anything.”

“Because she’s the Queen.”

Olivia stood up and hurried to the bathroom, locking the door firmly behind her. It was time to call Agent Adams.

She heard a knock. “Yes?”

“Ollie, you okay?”

“Yes, I’ll be out in a moment.”
 
When she re-emerged, she went back and sat down next to her husband.

“Did you call her?”

“Yes. But I hung up before she answered it. I’m not sure why.”

Rupert sighed. “Now, do you think you could just listen to what I have to say?”

“Are you going to go on about kings and queens?”

He nodded. “Yes, but I
need
you to listen,” he said firmly.

“Rupert, you’re not on drugs or anything, are you? I don’t like listening to silly talk.”

“Ollie, enough,” he said, his voice hoarse, sterner than it had ever been when talking to her.

She looked up at him in surprise. He had her full attention now.

“There are things I’ve wanted to share with you for a very long time but haven’t been able to. I didn’t have the permission I needed. Now that I’ve been given the go-ahead, please don’t ruin this by indicating that you are still not ready for me to let you into my world entirely.”

“I thought I was entirely in your world,” Olivia whispered, her eyes welling up.

“Ollie, there are things I’ve had to keep from you, but you know that. You’ve asked me many times to explain how I knew to ask you to
come find me two years ago.
Your patience toward me has been unbelievable and I’ve wanted to share this with you for such a long time. Well, I’m able to share it with you now, finally.”

“And this has something to do with Arizona disappearing?” Olivia asked.

“It could. Now will you listen to me?”

Olivia nodded, inwardly bracing herself, but she decided not to say a word until Rupert was done. She needed to listen to him analytically, to piece together any information that could lead her to Arizona.

“As I said before, my mother is the Queen. She is the queen of the Sigma-Ws. Constance has already explained their purpose and abilities to you. My father is the leader.”

“I guess that makes you a Sigma-W?” Olivia couldn’t help but ask.

“Ollie, try to remember back to your first visit to New York City when you were little. You were with your mother. It was Christmas. You went skating at the rink at Rockefeller Center. You wore a pink wool coat and a matching hat.”

“Gosh, yes… vaguely. Mom had a conference at a really amazing hotel in New York and she decided to bring me with her because she said that Manhattan was so very beautiful during the Christmas season. She was right. I mean, I used to love Christmas in London, but there was something magical about Christmas that year in New York. Anyway, how do you know about my visit? Did Mom tell you?”

“No, I was there with my mom. We were visiting as well, staying with Inez, who worked in the city at the time. We did all the seasonal stuff, the Rockettes included,” he smiled.

“Me, too,” she smiled, fondly remembering how happy she’d been. “So if Mom didn’t tell you, who did? We’ve got some pictures somewhere.”

“Ollie, that’s when we first met,” he said, and lightly brushed her lips with his.

“Rup?”

“You were at the Rockefeller Plaza ice rink, skating around in circles. I was immediately drawn to you. You were so careful on your skates, making sure not to make any mistakes.”

“I didn’t want to fall, being graceful was a priority with Mom,” Olivia smiled.

Rupert laughed. “Yes, I can tell that about your mother. After skating around for a while, I noticed that something fell from you. So, I skated over and picked it up. It was your
Quantum
necklace,” he said, touching the pendant where it now rested safely on Olivia’s neck. “I picked it up and skated over to hand it back to you.”

“That was you?” Olivia said in wonder. She threw her arms around Rupert. “That’s just amazing.”

“Well it was an amazing and life-changing moment for me, anyway. You just skated off and forgot all about me,” Rupert teased, pulling at her hair.

“Ouch, Rup! That’s not entirely true. I did tell Mom about you.”

“I told my mom as well. I told her that I was going to marry you one day.”

Olivia was speechless.

“Of course Mom hoped I’d forget all about you,” Rupert added. “She wanted me to follow my Sigma-W destiny and train for my future. And I did try. I continued to learn and train for many years, but you were inside my head, inside my heart. When the time came, I couldn’t promise to give the Sigma-W all of me. How could I, when my heart had firmly been placed with you? You can only imagine the displeasure of both my parents! As you know, I’m an only child. They had high hopes for me to take my position within the Sigma-W.”